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Dessert

Caramel for Custards

A caramel sauce made by heating brown sugar and water, then cooling before pouring over custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Caramel for Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a small iron frying pan or kettle, heat ½ pound of brown sugar gradually.

  2. Stir with a knife or flat stick until melted and smooth, with only a slight color change.

  3. Slowly add the hot water, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Let it simmer for a few minutes, scraping down any sugar that sticks to the sides.

  5. Stir in the remaining pound of sugar and let it boil until clear.

Finish and serve

  1. Chill the caramel on ice before pouring it over a cold steamed custard.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel flavor, along with color from its molasses content.

The step that matters

Heating the sugar gradually. Sugar heated too quickly can scorch on the bottom before the rest melts, giving a bitter taste. Gentle heating and stirring melt it evenly, with only a slight color change.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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